When poet Paul Muldoon began to assemble the lineup for next week's Princeton Poetry Festival, he sought a group of A-list poets representing a range of styles, ages and nationalities.

But he wanted them all to be great performers.

Mitsu Yasukawa / The Star- LedgerPaul Muldoon, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet behind the Princeton Poetry Festival. Muldoon is also the chairman of the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University.

"The contract that the poet has with the audience is not the same contract that she has with the reader of the page," said Muldoon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet behind the festival being held Monday and Tuesday. "That involves presenting the poem as effectively as possible, and that precludes mumbling in their shoes.

"There is a certain amount of shoe-gazing among poets," Muldoon continued. "I like poets who come out and sell their stuff, however crude that sounds. Otherwise, it's much better to stay at home."

Muldoon, who is chairman of the Lewis Center for the Arts, the festival's producer, has crafted a schedule of readings and discussions from 2 to 10 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. John Ashberry, Lucille Clifton, Gerald Stern, Ireland's Seamus Heaney, Germany's Durs Grunbein and Princeton alums Galway Kinnell, Sally Van Doren and Troy Jollimore are among the 15 poets participating.

Kinnell, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the Frost Medal and a MacArthur Fellowship, said he is looking forward to the event.

"It's always good to have good poets, first because you're going to listen to their poems, and if they are good, that will be a pleasure," said Kinnell, who has published 12 collections. "And secondly, the presence of well-known poets will bring more people into the audience, and it's always good to have a large and lively audience."

A large audience, at least, appears certain. All tickets, which are free, have been distributed. However, anyone can wait in line in the lobby of the 800-seat auditorium prior to the start of the event, and all unclaimed tickets will be made available to patrons in that line.

Muldoon, a Princeton University professor, had been thinking about hosting a poetry festival in Princeton for several years. He planned the first of what he hopes will be a biennial event to complement the Dodge Poetry Festival, presented in New Jersey every other year since 1986. But before his "modest" festival was announced, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation canceled its 2010 festival for budgetary reasons.

"It is troubling to think of that festival disappearing," Muldoon said. "This was all set up before we knew that Dodge was having difficulty. We're not trying to take its place."

In addition to presenting great artists, Muldoon wanted to feature an international roster to emphasize the global community of poets and the transformative power of the art form.

"In many parts of the world, poetry is recognized for what it truly is, a revolutionary medium," he said. "Poetry has the power to cause upset and, in fact, to be upsetting ... to change how we look at the world."

Stern, a resident of Lambertville and author of 15 books of poetry, said he will read a variety of work, including poems from his 2008 volume, "Save the Last Dance."

"I want to read a couple of older poems because I want to see how they sound, if they sound different to me than they did when I wrote them," said Stern, New Jersey's first poet laureate. "And I want to read some recent poems, to try them out."

Stern said he usually decides on which poems to read at the last minute, so he can respond to the audience. "I never have a fixed agenda," he said. "I have a kind-of agenda and my job is violating my agenda."

Each day will begin with a group reading at 2, followed by a panel discussion and another group reading. Monday concludes with a reading and conversation with Ashberry. A reading and conversation with Heaney on Tuesday ends the event.

The panels and conversations are intended to give the audience a more intimate experience, Muldoon said.

"They are a way of allowing the poets to do a little bit more ... than merely deliver the goods," he said. "And it's an opportunity for the audience to hear the personality of the poet and the philosophical position of the poet."

Although he welcomes something unpredictable, Muldoon said one thing is certain: The visionary behind the festival will not be reading his work.

"One doesn't run a party and then inflict oneself on the guests," he said.